'Right in the middle is where you find me,' says 1st-term North Shore congressman

As U.S. Rep. Robert Dold met recently with a few dozen residents of a Lake Forest senior home, Jane Brenner raised her hand.

"I have admired your willingness to cross the aisle to do what is right and best. … You're a loner," Brenner said.

Dold, who has learned to loosen up on the campaign trail, clutched the microphone and smiled. "Thanks for recognizing that," he replied.

Brenner's perspective is the one the Republican congressman has been trying to sell voters as he runs for re-election in the 10th District. He's portraying himself as a fiscally conservative, socially moderate businessman unafraid to buck GOP leaders despite arriving in Washington with a freshman class featuring more than a few members who won with tea party help.

That's proved a challenge as Democratic opponent Brad Schneider and his surrogates blast away with accusations that Dold has sided with his more vocally conservative GOP colleagues on crucial matters. They're singling out votes Dold cast to integrate private insurance into Medicare and to undo President Barack Obama's health care plan.

The more-conservative-than-he-appears criticism Dold faces is reminiscent of past campaigns against the district's longtime former congressman, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, who also describes himself as a social moderate and fiscal conservative. Dold occasionally invokes Kirk's name to try to cement the connection in voters' minds.

Democrats spent the better part of a decade trying — and failing — to defeat Kirk. Now they've redrawn the district's boundaries to make it easier to elect a Democrat: out are wealthier areas such as Kenilworth and in are blue-collar towns including Zion and Round Lake.

The 10th District remains swing territory. Although 63 percent of voters went for Democrat Obama in 2008, Republican Kirk carried the territory in the 2010 Senate race.

On a more personal level for Dold, redistricting cast out his Kenilworth home. The congressman said he will consider moving into the district if he wins, but he wouldn't commit and noted that his children would have to switch schools.

Dold is the better-funded candidate. He'd raised $3.9 million as of Sept. 30, about $1.6 million more than his opponent, and he went into October with $2.3 million on hand compared with Schneider's $268,000.

In addition, independent groups have weighed in heavily for Dold, spending an estimated $1.9 million since the primary on promotions including pricey TV ads, according to federal campaign finance records. Outside groups have spent an estimated $455,000 on Schneider.

Though Dold has campaigned to cut government spending and debt, the congressman's family draws a healthy income from government checks. Dold receives $174,000 yearly as a congressman, and his wife, Danielle, pulls in $124,000 as an IRS attorney.

Dold's family company, Rose Pest Solutions, has landed government contracts — a situation that predates his election. Rose has been paid $630,000 under a three-year contract from 2008 for pest control at a slew of Chicago municipal buildings, records show. Dold said he doesn't personally oversee any government contracts and hasn't run the company day-to-day since being elected.

Unlike last time, Dold is now running on his record, and the congressman's votes the past two years are generating controversy as both sides use the same facts to draw opposite conclusions.

Schneider's campaign has depicted Dold as a stalwart party-line voter, and an outside group recently started airing a TV ad comparing Dold to outspoken tea party Republican Rep. Joe Walsh.

Schneider points to nonpartisan analyses. OpenCongress, for example, lists Dold as voting with the GOP 83 percent of the time.

"These are votes that reflect a different set of priorities than I think we need to be focusing on," Schneider said.

Dold said that many votes were procedural or nonpartisan and noted that his percentage is lower than most — OpenCongress ranked him the ninth-lowest among 240 House Republicans.

"Right in the middle is where you find me," Dold said.

Among other stances, the congressman has touted his vote for a budget plan inspired by a bipartisan group and opposition to a Republican transportation package that would have jeopardized about $450 million per year for local transit projects.

But the votes that have drawn the most attention were those Dold cast for budgets proposed by Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan. Ryan first wanted to transform Medicare to provide payments to private insurers, then modified that to leave Medicare as an option while also including private insurers.

A TV spot from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee contended that amounts to Dold voting to "essentially end Medicare."